W. B. Godbey - Enter His Rest

want him to win your victory. Consequently you make a great mistake when you put manacles on him, and do
not let him fight his best. You not only ought to be willing to let him do his best, but be ready to help him in the
fight yourself with all of your forces.
Rest assured when you go into the war with the world, the flesh and the devil, it is indispensable that you bring
into availability all your ransomed powers, because you may rest assured that Satan lays under contribution all
his forces, stygian and terrestrial, and is sure to fight his best, because man's extremity is God's opportunity; you
need not expect God to come to your relief till you actually bring into availability all of your own resources. It is
so in seeking pardon and sanctification, as well as in the work of the Lord indiscriminately for the salvation of
others.
I know what it is to stand alone on the battlefield, day after day, with no person to whom I could speak
sympathetically or judiciously. Oh, those days of conflict which I have endured bombarding Hell's batteries with
all my might, while, instead of helping me, the preacher and his people were on my back, and I had to carry
them and, at the same time, make the best of it I could, with the combined powers of men and devils. The most
glorious experiences in my life have been amid those very environments; encompassed by the panoplied armies
of his Satanic majesty, not only including the peers of pandemonium, but the magnates of earth, while the dear
old pastor had his hand on me like a mountain, trying to hold me down. One day I was feeling the conflict most
obviously, and returning from the afternoon meeting as usual by way of the post-office, the pastor, having
arrived a few minutes earlier and received his mail, was reading a letter when I got there. I observed his tears
were flowing copiously. Having finished, he handed it to me, at the same time laying his hand on me, with these
words, “Now do as you please, you are free, I put no more brakes on you.” He let me keep the letter which I
read with interest. It was from Brother Brookes of Paris, with whom the Lord had so wonderfully blessed my
labor in the best revival which had visited them in fifty years, and where God had sent in the presiding elder to
liberate me from the embargoes put on me by the people through their pastor, which were about to culminate in
my dismissal from the work.
The letter went on to say, “I take it for granted Brother Godbey is with you and your meeting is in progress. I do
not expect to hear of any victory from you, as it is too soon. You may expect the thermometer to fall and the
mercury to sink lower and lower till you will all come to the conclusion that you have made a mistake and
called the wrong man. I want to tell you beforehand that if you come to that conclusion you are wrong; we did it
here, unanimously thinking that we had made a mistake and called the wrong man. But now we all know that
the mistake was ours, and that we had the right man all the time, and the work that made us blue was just as
important as the work that made us bright. Therefore when you see the mercury falling do not be jostled; it will
rise again, and rise higher than you ever thought it could get, till we all to glory go.
When the pastor read that from his brother, who had just passed through the same ordeal he then took all the
brakes off and made me feel free as Gabriel. Then we moved on; God wonderfully used the hard, flinty, Sinai
Gospel with its keen New Jerusalem blade. In due time the altar was crowded with seekers. The Holy Ghost
descended on the people in unstinted measure, and the glorious revival rolled over the church, attended by
hundreds converted, reclaimed or sanctified.
We give you one more case in dear old Tennessee, the twin sister of beloved Kentucky, whose “Old Kentucky
Home” I hear the people sing about in every country under Heaven, as well as on ships plowing every ocean.
I was called to preach in a campmeeting in east Tennessee, about eighty miles from Knoxville.
I arrived Saturday afternoon and was happy to find one of our noble holiness evangelists had preceded me on
the field of battle. He was preaching sanctification all the time and it had been his constant theme, so I was
informed, from his arrival. A few people were seeking holiness. The first service after my arrival was Saturday
evening. The crowd was very large and attentive; the brother preached on sanctification, and winding up asked
me if I had anything to say. I got up on a bench and surveyed the multitude seated beneath the canvas, while
many who seemed to have been crowded out were standing around in the beautiful silvery light of the moon
outside.
When I surveyed the audience, the Holy Spirit that moment flashed on me His extraordinary gift of discernment